Without Vocals
by XShadow ZeroX
Summary: The band Bad Luck has no lead singer, and the responsibility of finding him was placed into the hands of Yuki and the others. After a much needed break at a café, there he meets Shindou Shuichi.
1. Amethyst Eyed Stranger

_Without Vocals_

_Chapter 1: Amethyst Eyed Stranger _

_Summary: The band Bad Luck has no lead singer, and the responsibility of finding him was placed into the hands of Yuki and the others. After a much needed break at a café, there he meets Shindou Shuichi. _

Yuki was right in front of his table with his computer; he sat there taping the key. He had a deadline that he had to meet but he just couldn't find the time or inspiration to write the novel that he promised. He had dated his good share of women in his time but he still couldn't find that one element that got him writing that novel. He knew many fans were waiting for his novel to be published but to be honest, he didn't care at all. He checked the time: 3:00. He had to meet up with the two only band members in Bad Luck, along with K, Seguchi, Tatsuha and Ryuichi to help find a singer for Bad Luck. Bad Luck was a band that had been formed but they still had no lead singer, and without one, they couldn't start their singing career. Soon, a car came by right outside his building. Yuki came down, knowing that it was them.

The windows rolled down, revealing Tatsuha sporting some nice shades. "Need a ride?"

Yuki just hopped in the car, lucky for him that the car was so large otherwise there would not have been any chance of fitting. "Why don't you just get a van," Yuki said as he looked out the window. "It would be better than this pathetic excuse for a car. Cars are supposed to be small."

"Hey, don't you start insulting my car!" Tatsuha yelled as he drove. "This cost me a lot…even if it is used." Yuki turned to look out the window again. Tatsuha lit a cigarette and took a deep breath as he looked at the small mirror right in front of him; he saw Tohma's reflection. "So why don't you just go ahead and hire a famous singer of whom is interested in singing in a group? It'll be easier. A lot easier, actually."

"We just don't think it's a good idea to have a famous singer as our lead." Suguru answered from behind. "And Tohma agrees with us."

"Whatever," Tatsuha grumbled. "I still think that my idea is way better."

K took out his faithful gun and pointed it to Tatsuha's head. "We want to start fresh. That's why we prefer to look for one," he hissed with a glare. "It's a better idea, don't you think so?" Bad Luck would be a great band, K could feel it, and he knew getting a singer that was well known would just mess all his plans.

The driver was still and gulped. "Y-yes, it's a great idea..."

"Good!" K laughed as he put his gun back into his pocket, and sat back down.

Their quest to find the singer for Bad luck wasn't easy. They walked out of the car and walked the streets a bit to see if they could go and find him. They decided that the lead singer would be a guy because it was decided that Bad Luck would be a boy band, but if things got desperate, they would eagerly have a girl as lead singer.

After an hour of walking, Tatsuha fell onto the floor. "Can't we rest yet?" he puffed. He glanced back at the rest of the group; they weren't far behind. They soon got to where Tatsuha was sitting on the floor. "Look, we need some rest. We've been running for an hour all around town and I'm exhausted." Yuki raised an eyebrow. "Hey, like you said," Tatsuha said, noticing Yuki. "I was always the lazier one."

"Yeah, I guess we should get some tea or whatever at that café over there," Yuki pointed at the rather large café that was across the street. Everyone else, luckily for Tatsuha, finally gave in and thought a cup of coffee or tea sounded good right about now.

They crossed the road as soon as Tatsuha got up. The café looked quite packed from outside; they couldn't decide if they should go and look for another, less packed, smaller café. Suguru didn't think it was a good idea to go to a café that was so packed at the moment and soon, the other started to agree with him. Soon, they were ready to go look for another café. They started to leave, that is until Tatsuha fixed himself right next to the café, being the only one with the keys to the car, they all didn't have a choice but to go to that specific café. Yuki sighed and seeing that there was no way out of this one, opened the door to the café to check out the café.

It was packed.

"Dammit, who did he have to choose this one…?" Yuki mumbled, slightly annoyed. This was a huge café; someone was bound to notice Yuki in there. If he wasn't enough, Bad Luck and Nittle Grasper should be. "Look, there's no room here." Tatsuha looked a bit disappointed. The whole group couldn't find a single spot to sit. "Oh wait," Yuki pointed to a set of seats that was close by. "There's somewhere where we can sit."

They made their way through the huge crowd of people in the café, and then finally got to the seats just in time before someone else could even have a chance to take them. They breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the seats were now theirs.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" asked a pink-haired boy with a really loud orange raincoat. Yuki swore that he was going to be blind if he continued to stare at the hideous jacket. But he looked at the seats and noticed that there was indeed, one seat left that was unused. "Fine," Yuki muttered, although he didn't like strangers sitting with him.

"So," Ryuichi asked with a smile. "What's your name? Mine is–"

"Ryuichi Sakuma!" the boy finished breathlessly as he stared at him. He couldn't believe it, _The _Ryuichi Sakuma was talking to him.

But Ryuichi frowned. "I wanted to say my name," he pouted, and then his eyes widened as he looked at the pink-haired boy. "Are you psycho? How did you know my name?"

"That's _psychic," _Suguru corrected Ryuichi with a sigh.

"No, I'm not psychic, Sakuma-san, but you're the lead singer of Nittle Grasper! Who doesn't know you?" the boy exclaimed, and then he remembered Ryuichi's question. "My-my name is Shindou Shuichi!" he said and then bowed.

"Hahaha! Looks like I did a better job at being the manager for Nittle Grasper than I thought!" K laughed, a bit proudly. "Oh well, I'm just as excited doing another new band! With some hope and with my help, maybe it'll do better than Nittle Grasper!" he continued to laugh.

They all tried to keep their identity a secret, that way, there wouldn't be any kind of uproar while they were all trying to relax. The worst thing so far was that all the girls in the café were noticing how cute they all looked. They were lucky enough that no one heard Shuichi squeal out Ryuichi's name.

"Yup! You're right! Hi, I'm Ryuichi!" he shouted to Shuichi. "And this is Kumagoro!" Ryuichi brought out his beloved pink stuffed animal. "Na no da!"

"Uh, Ryuichi," Tatsuha said with a forced smile. "I think he already knows who you are so you'd better keep quiet until we leave." He wasn't famous, but running away from all the fans with Ryuichi and being mistaken for Yuki more than just once did leave a scar behind.

"Oh..." Ryuichi paused. "This is Yuki, this is Tohma. This is K, this is Suguru, this is Tatsuha, this is Yuki and that's Hiro!" He pointed to all of them, giving Shuichi their names. Tatsuha, Yuki and Suguru looked like they were just about to strangle Ryuichi. "Oh, but Hiro and Suguru don't have many friends their age," he added.

"My name is Shindou Shuichi," Shuichi said, introducing himself to Hiro and Suguru. "Maybe if we meet again, we can hang out, Hiro-kun."

Hiro actually smiled. "Okay, sounds good to me."

by the end of the long table, next to Shuichi, Yuki sat there and took a look at the menu. He noticed that everything on the menu cost a fortune after seeing that the coffee alone cost enough for a nice steak at an expensive restaurant. It was clear that he was going to end of paying for all of them; no one ever bothered to bring their wallets when they all went searching for a singer, leaving him to be the sucker who ended up paying for everything.

"Me and Kumagoro ordered cake! What is Shuichi ordering?" Ryuichi asked him.

"Just some soda and a cookie," Shuichi replied with a grin. He leaned back even more and started to sing a Nittle Grasper song. Tohma, along with the rest of them, noticed his singing, how nice it sounded. "What is it?" Shuichi asked with a confused expression on his face. "Is something wrong?"

"You are the singer that we were all looking for all this time," Yuki sighed, a bit disappointed. "I just wish that he was going to be more mature than you."

"What are you talking about?" Shuichi asked everyone. "What's going on here?" He turned to face Tohma with a quizzical expression on his face. "Could you please tell me what is going on here?"

Tohma just relaxed deeper into his chair, bringing a mug of coffee to his face as he did, and then flashed a smile as soon as he sipped some from his cup. "You are being asked to become the lead singer for the band Bad Luck."


	2. Making A Deal Will Get You A Life

_Without Vocals_

_Chapter 2: Making A Deal Will Get You A Life_

_Summary: The band Bad Luck has no lead singer, and the responsibility of finding him was placed into the hands of Yuki and the others. After a much needed break at a café, there he meets Shindou Shuichi. _

"Wha...?" This whole thing came to Shuichi as a shock. He pointed a finger at himself. "You want me to become the singer for Bad Luck?" Tohma nodded with his trademark smile. "Uhh…" Shuichi was left completely unsure. This was his once-in-a-lifetime chance to become a singer and he really needed the money on top of that. It was decided, he had to accept. "Okay, I'll become the singer for Bad Luck."

"Great! You're going to be just great! The best singer ever, Shu-chan!" Ryuichi cheered, slapping Shuichi on the back.

"Well…I don't know, I don't think anyone's as good as you Sakuma-san." Shuichi scratched the back of his head, blushing a bit; Ryuichi's compliment was too much for him.

"No way! Shu-chan is way better than me!" Ryuichi yelled. "Look, Kumagoro agrees, right?" Kumagoro's head was moved in a way that seemed close enough to a nod. "See?"

Too much noise was something that Yuki didn't like. "Will you all shut up? It's noisy enough as it is being in a café full of people!" he yelled, mainly at Ryuichi and Shuichi.

"This is great," Suguru was in high spirits. "We have finally found our singer—"

A woman with a tray stacked full of cakes and mugs came up to them. "Here you all go," she said interrupting Suguru, placing everything on the table. "Oh, I'm so sorry, did I interrupt what you were saying, young man?"

"No, no, it's fine, you didn't interrupt anything, really," Suguru gave the lady a slightly fake smile.

"Oh thank goodness. You're the first little boy I've seen with such nice manners," The woman giggled.

An anger mark just appeared on the back of Suguru's head. "Oh, really? Thank you for saying that," Suguru managed to say through gritted teeth that still managed to keep up an even more fake smile than before. He turned to the rest of the group, who he noticed were _trying _not to laugh. Suguru noted Tatsuha running straight to the men's room, the whole time with both his hands covering his mouth and holding back a huge fit of giggles. He sighed; he was sixteen and they still treated him like this.

Shuichi stared at Suguru with a cocked head and a very confused expression on his delicate face. "What's going on?" He asked, more to himself than anyone else.

"Let's just say Suguru doesn't like it when you call him a kid," Hiro whispered while grinning.

"How about a muffin for the cute little muffin?" the woman referred to Suguru, holding out a blueberry muffin. "It's on the house, but only for cute little boys such as yourself." The woman smiled while she held it out for him.

Tohma was trying to straighten himself up from all the things that this woman was saying to his younger cousin whom he knew disliked _everything _that this woman was saying. "Thank you, Miss, but that's all we need," Tohma said, finishing her off with his trademark smile.

The woman blushed. "Okay…I'd better get going, then."

To Suguru's relief, the woman finally left. "Why didn't you do that earlier?" he asked Tohma.

"Sorry, forgot," Tohma replied. "But it was funny, wasn't it?"

Stab.

"Hahahaha! You're still a kid, you know, Suguru! You'll grow!" K laughed loudly. "Just live until then!"

Stab.

"They'll stop doing that soon enough, don't worry," Hiro said. "But that was funny."

Stab.

"A kid, a kid!" Ryuichi yelled. He held up Kumagoro. "Look, a kid." He pointed to Suguru.

Stab.

"Sorry, but I had to go to go to the bathroom to laugh again…'cute little muffin'," Tatsuha teased.

Stab.

"You really are still a kid," Yuki began to smoke. "Much more maturing is needed before they'll notice since you are 16 after all."

Stab.

"Wait," Shuichi said as he stared at Suguru, "…You're not fourteen?"

The last one was too much for Suguru.

Suguru ran out of the café, extremely annoyed. "You're all blind!" he yelled to them before he shut the door. Everyone sat on their spot in silence.

A waiter came by their table. "Here is the bill, Sir."

"Let's go now," Tohma said, getting up. "We have to arrange a few things with Shindou-san. We should get going—oh, Eiri-san, could you please pay? I didn't bring my money."

_I knew it…_"I always end up paying…" he grumbled. This happened every single time they went out; they never failed to do that. To Yuki, Tohma and his younger cousin seemed to be the only ones who weren't doing it on purpose. "So, how much is it?" he sighed, taking out his wallet.

"It was nice having company for once…" Shuichi beamed. "I'll just pay for my things and I'll be on my way," he picked up the bill and checked to see the price of his soda and cookie. His smile vanished instantly after that and his amethyst eyes widened out of fear. "...But I could buy a TV set with that much money," was all he managed to say before he looked solemnly at the bill.

Yuki took the bill out of Shuichi's hands and looked at it for a while. His eyes just stared at Yuki curiously as he noticed the bill was no longer in his hands. Yuki sighed–this definitely was a fancy place, judging by the bill. After counting up the money in his wallet, he placed all of it on the table, next to the bill that was Shuichi's and the whole group's. Yuki got up. "Let's go," he mumbled, 'We're done here anyway."

"Wait!" Shuichi said as his hands were outstretched, and held Yuki's sleeve.

"What?" Yuki said in an irritated tone. "What do you want now?"

"Umm…" he looked down as if he couldn't make eye contact with him for some weird reason. "I'll pay you back later…"

"Whatever…" Yuki muttered. He turned to his younger brother. "Hey, Tatsuha, we have to look for that Fujisaki kid before we can go on." Tatsuha nodded, pretending that he had remembered to pick Suguru up. He thought Yuki didn't notice but he did. "Idiot…" he sighed. "Well, let's get going."

Soon enough, everyone was ready to leave. They found Suguru by the corner of the store, in a grumpy mood. But no one had time to worry about anything except for making a deal with Shuichi.

After getting to the building and entering Seguchi's office, they began. After an hour, a decision was finally made.

"So you agree to this contract, Shindou-san?" Tohma asked as he held up the piece of paper. Shuichi nodded. Well, the whole contract bit was coming to an end to Tohma's relief. He smiled at Shuichi. "Good, now that we have finally come to a decision, why don't you sign it?" Tohma put his hand in his inner jacket pocket. "…Now where is my pen? We can't get you to sign this without a pen, can we?" This time, he began to look through his desk drawers. Tohma sighed as he relaxed on his leather chair: everyone took pens out of his office without ever asking. "Sakano, could you please look through the drawer right next to you?"

"T-this one?" Sakano pointed at the said drawer; Tohma nodded. He dug through the drawer and found a nice blue pen. "Here you are, Shacho," Sakano said, placing the pen aside on Tohma's table.

"Now," turning to Shuichi, Tohma placed the pen right next to the spot where Shuichi was to sign. He gave him a smile. "Sign and everything else will be arranged."

Shuichi took the pen in his hand and signed it. Suguru cheered up a bit, Yuki was relieved that he didn't have to go on these expeditions anymore, Ryuichi was happy 24/7, Hiro was happy to have a singer and a friend, Tohma didn't have to worry about this anymore, K was happy to get another person in Bad Luck, Sakano didn't know who Shuichi but he was somewhat happy being the producer of Bad Luck with a new member, and Tatsuha was relieved of driving his car all around Tokyo and paying for the gas himself.

While everyone was cheerful, Shuichi looked worried. "Um, I have a problem..." Some turned to Shuichi with a confused expression on their faces–why wasn't he celebrating?

Yuki didn't understand; all of these stupid people would celebrate when something like this happened, so why didn't this kid even look cheerful? "What is it now?" Yuki asked in a tone that was a bit colder than he meant. The pink haired boy froze for a bit. _Great, I probably sounded scray to this kid and frightened him, _Yuki thought as he sighed. "So?" With no where else to look, Shuichi looked down at the floor. "Great, this again," Yuki sighed. "You're starting to irritate us all, so just spit it out."

"Tell us if there is a problem, Shindou-san," Tohma smiled from his desk.

"I don't have anywhere to stay," Shuichi finally said. He was embarrassed, but it was true. Going to that café that he had thought was a lot cheaper than it actually was, was a treat for him. He didn't even have a shelter, just a big TV box. Scrounging for food, begging sometimes, singing for money other times, doing odd jobs that paid poorly whenever the chance came, these were the things that he did.

He was poor.

There was a silence in which everyone turned to Yuki. "What?" he said coldly. He knew where this was going and he wasn't going to let them do it. They wanted to leave the stupid kid on him so they wouldn't have to deal with him. Sure, just dump the kid on him instead, it sounded just great. "You're not going to leave him to me. You all just want to bear this burden on me," mumbled Yuki as he pointed to Shuichi, and then he llit a cigarette. "Well, I'm not going to."

"Eiri-san," Tohma called as he came closer to Yuki. "It's not that, we don't have anywhere to put him for now. If you could just let him stay for a few days…" Yuki sighed. "I could try calling a hotel—"

"He can stay with us," Hiro and Suguru interrupted.

"Re-really?" Shuichi cried. People were actually willing to let him stay with them? "You two will really let me stay?" They both nodded. "Wow, an actual room!"

"Heh," Suguru turned his head to the left with his eyes closed. "If you can even call it a room. We've been so busy that both Nakano-san and I have been staying in a small room in this building." He paused. "We don't even get to stay in our own houses."

"That's for sure," Hiro sighed. He pulled out a nearby chair and seated himself on it as he talked. "It's so small…We would offer you our houses but we don't have anyone staying there—well, except for Fukisaki-san since…" Hiro turned to Suguru while trying not to laugh. "…the almighty Mature One still lives with his mom. He is still a kid after all."

"Nakano-san, I'm going to strangle you if you keep this up," Suguru growled as he glared at Hiro through the corner of his eyes. Telling some person they didn't even actually know about who he lives with and hinting his age ticked Suguru off. Soon after that, he just realized that he didn't know Shuichi's age. "Hey, how old are you, Shindou-san?" Suguru asked curiously.

"Nineteen."

"Oh, is that all? Ha ha ha ha…" Suguru laughed and everyone else, including Shuichi, joined him. A second later, Suguru just noticed something…did he just say nineteen? He stopped laughing. "Are—did you say that you were--?"

"Nineteen?" Shuichi finished for him. "Yes, I am, is there a problem?" Shuichi looked at himself. "Don't I look nineteen to you?"

"it's just that you look like a girl, so I assumed that you were still maturing…" Suguru replied and Hiro nodded though he was not as surprised as Suguru. He paused for a bit. "So, should he stay with us?" Suguru asked as he turned to his older cousin. "Hmm...Now that I think about it, we don't have much room here as I said, and we'll need at least a day or two before we can get things ready for him to come, though. What should be do, Seguchi-san?"

Before Tohma had the chance to respond to his younger cousin, Yuki sighed, "He'll stay with me." Thinking that they would dump the brat on him anyway, he might as well give in, if not, gracefully.

"Really, Eiri-san?" Tohma blinked. "Are you sure that you don't mind?" Yuki lean on a desk and puffed out smoke. "Well, okay then, Shindou-san will be staying with Eiri-san for now—oh, that is if you don't mind you two."

Suguru and Hiro held out their palms. "We don't mind, really, it's okay. Whatever he wants is fine by us and to tell you the truth, we don't have any room here right now."

Yuki grabbed his coat and opened the door. If he was going to set the rules of his house to his guest, he might as well get him to the house first and start soon after that. He turned to Shuichi. "Oi, we're going now, get ready."

The fact that Yuki was actually going to let him stay surprised him for a second but he still managed to scramble over to the closet to get his jacket. Shuichi grabbed the handle of the closet door, opened it and seized his jacket from the rack. He scrambled back to Yuki and waited as he just stared into his eyes. Yuki sighed at this.

After saying goodbye, he and Shuichi left the building and got inside his car. Yuki noticed how fascinated the boy was of his car; he stared at all the buttons and switches and felt how comfortable the seats were. _Great, don't tell me that this is his first experience in a decent car, _Yuki thought after what he just saw, _he must be poorer than I thought he was. _They soon arrived at his house after that.


End file.
